I have just bought some stainless cookware and anything I cook in the fry pans stick to the bottom and is very hard to clean. Is there sometning needed to prepare the cookware before cooking the first time? Also, how do I remove the burnt stains from the bottom of the pan.

Thanks, Mike Garwood from Arkansas

Answers

By Leslie (Guest Post)

April 24, 20060 found this helpful

Are you used to using non-stick? If so, you're never going to get the stainless to equal it. But stainless is healthier to cook with, so you take the good with the bad. Make sure you're using oil, and enough of it. And get the pan and oil nice and hot before you put any food in it. Once the food is in, let it stay in one place for a while. Most people move their food around too much. You shouldn't flip food more than once (burgers, fish, pancakes, etc), cook halfway through on one side and than flip. The first side usually takes 2x as long as the second.

Beyond that, I have no advice, unless you have questions about cooking a specific food.

If you are using electric (pertains more) the heat will be retained for a long time, so check the food and when you have just a few minutes left, SHUT OFF THE HEAT! Aluminum core stainless steel (they are made in layers) are quite efficient in disbursing energy. If you are leery of using oils, olive oil (classic) is the best for you!

You have a lot of good suggestions here. I just thought of a couple more;

1. For stuck on food, try adding a couple cups of hot water with a drop of dishsoap, cover and boil for about 5 minutes. Really loosens things up!!!

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2. If you use steel wool/SOS pads, do so lightly, taking off a small layer at a time, so that you do not scratch the surface, which will make even more things stick. I do this often, esp. on the bottoms.

I have stainless steel cookware and I find you have to cook stuff on half the heat you normally would or it gets too hot and everything sticks. Also, I think you have to have something in the pan before turning the burner on. I usually use non-stick spray if needed.

I have stainless steel it does heat faster so I had to learn to half the heat and stay close. I love mystainless steel now but the other night I made a mess. I heated up canned beans and wienes andleft it on and forgot it...OOPS the dogs were barking so I went to find pan smoking and beans burnt.

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I put the pan outside for the night. In morningI soaked it in sink with dawn dishsoap, vingear and water thenlet set for the day. The mess came up once I dumped the water out and the burnt beans came up and tossed out my pan, its just like new.

A few years ago I purchased a Kitchen Aid refrigerator and received a small rebate plus a frying pan. This question is about the pan (just letting you know why I have it). The pan feels solid, hefty, made of stainless steel. Every time I use it, food sticks.

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I even go so far as to make sure the pan is very hot, flood the pan with oil before making French toast, and still it sticks. Maybe that's why they were giving them away for free. So the question is - how can you tell if a pan will do this and is there a cure? It looks and feels like it's in the higher priced cookware category.